Huss 1 Courtney Huss Megan Keaton English 112-15 4 April 2013 Annotated Bibliography Clemmitt, Marcia. School Reform.

CQ Researcher 29 Apr. 2011: 385-4 08. Web. 27 Mar. 2013 In this article, Marcia Clemmitt argues the broad topic of teacher evaluations. Marcias goal is to make readers aware of the critical condition school systems are now in and what can be done to help this situation. She believes that a solution to help school systems from failing are to base teacher evaluation on students standardized test scores. This will then allow schools to better understand the knowledge and skills teachers are providing for their students. By determining the passing or failing of a students test score they will then be able to determine whether the teacher is succeeding in her classroom or not. If the teacher fails to succeed with her student she will then face consequences. Consequences for the teachers can vary depending on each separate evaluation; pay and firing decisions are a few examples of the measures that will be taken if a teacher does not reach the goal of his/her school system. Marcia agrees with this way of teacher evaluations and thinks that it will help school systems tremendously. Marcias argument is solely based on the improvement of school systems. In the first paragraph of her article she stresses the fact of how United States school systems are desperately falling behind, making all readers aware that actions needs to be taken in order for improvement. By Marcia stating the crisis of school systems she can then introduce a possible solution that can

Huss 2 widely affect schools throughout the nation. By Marcia going on to explain the benefits that schools will receive from student based teacher evaluations she is in some ways giving readers hope which will ultimately help her argument. Her ideas are brought together with statistics and quotes which helps understand the educational and accuracy of her argument. Marcia states her opinion and argument very clearly for all readers to understand and hopefully agree with. This article helps me to better understand the importance of teacher evaluations and the outcome it can have on our school systems. I now understand how teacher evaluations can be changed in order to benefit students and our nation. This article helped me to gain the knowledge of what can best help our schools succeed. I am planning on using the article to help me argue the fact that standardized test scores should come into consideration when evaluating teachers. With an international tests showing that the United States no longer leads in school achievement, a bipartisan coalition of reformers is advocating the creation of more charter schools and a system of basing pay and firing decisions for teachers on students standardized test scores. Opponents maintain, however, that inciting teachers to compete with one another for pay is the wrong way to go about improving education. But now they are joined by Democratic politicians, including President Barack Obama, and venture philosopher, led by Microsoft cofounder Bill Gates, who are bringing the ideas they used to achieve business success to the domain of public education.

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Glazerman, Steven. "Value-Added Modeling Is the Best Tool to Measure Teacher Effectiveness." Standardized Testing. Ed. Dedria Bryfonski. Detroit: Greenhaven Press, 2012. At Issue. Rpt. from "Evaluating Teachers: The Important Role of Value-Added." Brookings Institution, 2010. Opposing Viewpoints In Context. Web. 3 Apr. 2013. Steven Glazermans main focus in this article is to give readers a better understanding of how changing the teacher evaluation system can benefit school systems. He believes that if schools would evaluate teachers based upon the comparison of students test scores from the beginning of a course and the end school systems would be able to accurately determine the effectiveness of an individual teacher. Glazerman thoroughly explains the positive impact school systems will receive if the teacher evaluation system could be critiqued. By determining a students academic gain throughout a course administrators are able to evaluate and analyze whether a teacher has been meeting his/her full potential of educating students. Glazerman presents his argument very early in this article. He does so because he wants to make sure readers are fully aware of his opinion and what is going to be discussed. Glazerman provides multiple facts and statistics that can prove his argument credible which will ultimately help him by letting readers know his argument is accurate. When stating his argument he makes sure to provide multiple examples that can better explain his opinion on the subject of teacher evaluations; this will drastically help readers gain a better understanding of what Glazermans opinion is and how it relates to this argument. I will be able to use this article in multiple ways. By reading this article I now have a new understanding of how teachers could be evaluated. I will be able to use this article to relate it with another article I am using School Reform that also supports evaluations of teachers based

Huss 4 upon students test scores. I have gained a better knowledge on the benefits test scores could have on our teacher evaluations scores, and I now will be able to argue my opinion better with an accurate source to back it up. The teacher's contribution can be estimated in a variety of ways, but typically entails some variant of subtracting the achievement test score of a teacher's students at the beginning of the year from their score at the end of the year A statistical method known as value-added modeling has enabled educational systems to estimate teachers' impacts on student learning by comparing student test scores at the beginning of the year to those at the end of the year, making statistical adjustments for factors outside the control of teachers. Although value-added evaluation is not perfect, it is the best system we currently have for evaluating teacher performance. There is an obvious need for teacher evaluation systems that include a spread of verifiable and comparable teacher evaluations that distinguish teacher effectiveness.

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Esch, Camille. Student Test Scores Should Be Part of Teacher Evaluations. School Reform. Noah Berlatsky. Detroit: Greenhaven Press. Opposing Viewpoints. Rpt. from Put Teachers to the Test Los Angeles Times 23 Mar. 2008. Opposing Viewpoints In Context. Web. 27 Mar. 2013 Camille Esch argues the importance of basing teacher evaluations upon student achievement. In her article she explains how beneficial it would be to students, parents, and school systems to include students standardized test scores into teacher evaluations. By creating a standardized test for all students to take; which will consist of information learned throughout the school year, administrators will be able to better determine which teacher is fully meeting academic success. Camille does not only argue for solely using students test scores; she also believes that there should be other factors included within the evaluations, such as, classroom and student classwork reviews. Camille argues that this will best benefit our nations school systems and students. Camille Esch presented a very clear and understandable argument in this article. In the beginning of the article she thoroughly explains how current teacher evaluations are taken, which allows readers to have a complete understanding of what teacher evaluations are and how they take place before reading the presented argument. Once readers gain a full understanding they are then presented with Camilles argument on adding students standardized test scores to teacher evaluations. She then goes on to explain the benefits that will come from these actions and how she does not believe that students test scores should be the only factor included in evaluations; but instead added to the already existing evaluations. By Camille stating multiple

Huss 6 times that test scores should not be the only form of evaluations she is making it aware that she is for including student test scores, but does not believe that school systems will be able to evaluate teachers solely based upon them. This article helps me in many ways. It gave me an accurate knowledge of what teacher evaluations are. Now that I am aware of how teacher evaluations take place I can now form more of an opinion on how I think that teachers should be evaluated. Also by reading all of Camilles objectives of how much this could benefit our schools, I am more aware of the changes that our school systems need to make in order for us to succeed educationally as a nation. Teacher evaluations focus on what they do in the classroom the input of the learning process. In many instances, principals can only rate teachers satisfactory or unsatisfactory. Multiple unsatisfactory evaluations can lead to a dismissal. To build a better system of evaluating teachers, it is worth the investment to design tests that measure how much individual students learn over the course of a year on the material the teacher is expected to teach.

Huss 7 Kane, Thomas., et al. Evaluating teacher effectiveness: can classroom observations identify practices that raise achievement? Education Next 11.3 (2011): 54+. Opposing Viewpoints In Context. Web. 27 Mar. 2013. In this article, Thomas Kane proceeds to argue the fact that teacher evaluations including classroom observations have proven evidence that can detect teacher and students academic achievement. Without including evaluations based upon students test scores the effectiveness of a teacher can still be accurately determined. By allowing trained professionals to observe and criticize a classroom environment and the teaching methods of an individual teacher, school systems are able to determine the effectiveness that a teacher can have on his/her students. Kane argues that by examining all skills and knowledge of an individual teacher school administrators are able to decide whether a student is at the highest potential that they can achieve without involving test scores. Thomas Kane presents his argument very early into this article. He does so because he wants to make sure his point is clear and understandable before the reader continues reading the rest of the article. Kane makes his opinion and argument known throughout the whole article which can help to give a better understanding of the importance of teacher evaluations. He makes sure he stresses the fact that teacher evaluations can be accurate without the use of students test scores. By Kane repeating this statement multiple times this could be considered his strategy. He is intentionally bringing attention to the fact that his argument is entirely accurate and factual. By doing so Kane is proving his argument more credible by providing facts along with each repeat of the statement. His goal is to repeat this statement of his argument as many times as he can

Huss 8 without sounding to repetitive. By doing this Kane thinks readers will successfully remember the importance of his argument. This article will help me better understand how teacher evaluations take place without the use of student test scores. Before reading this article I was beginning to form a negative opinion about teacher evaluations that do not include students test scores. But, after I read this article I am again mutual in this discussion. After reading Kanes opinions and facts on how teacher evaluations are just as accurate without the use of test scores I can now understand that the importance of test scores is not as crucial as I thought. This article gave me a better understanding of how statistically evaluations benefit students and school systems, which will ultimately help me to form and argue my opinion in my final paper. We find that evaluations based on well-executed classroom observations do identify effective teachers and teaching practices. Teachers scores on the classroom observation components of Cincinnatis evaluation system reliably predict the achievement gains made by their students in both math and reading. These findings support the idea that teacher evaluation systems need not be based on test scores alone in order to provide useful information about which teachers are most effective in raising student achievement.

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Goldstein, Jennifer. "The Work of the PAR Panel: Supporting and Assessing Teacher Evaluation." Peer Review and Teacher Leadership: Linking Professionalism and Accountability. New York, NY: Teachers College, 2010. 78-96. Print. In the book Peer Review and Teacher Leadership Jennifer Goldstein argues the importance of PAR (peer assistance and reviews) in school systems. PAR can help school systems across the nation by avoiding the traditional structure of teacher evaluations. She argues that using PAR will help increase the evaluation process. With this evaluation system schools will determine and organize a specific group of specialized individuals that will be considered coaches. The coaches will have the job of visiting each teachers classroom on a regular basis in order to determine the correct and accurate evaluation of the teacher. Goldstein argues that this will give a more accurate evaluation of a teachers true potential on a regular basis because the teacher will not have any warning or knowledge of when a coach will be visiting his/her classroom. Goldstein argues her point very well in this chapter of her book. She stresses the fact that this evaluation system can and will benefit schools throughout the nation. With the help of examples and facts she presents her argument very clearly and understandable. By repeating how PAR benefits every aspect of the school systems she is reassuring readers that her opinion is in fact accurate and beneficial. She also includes facts and credible information to support her

Huss 10 argument in each repeat of her statement. By doing so Goldstein is proving her opinion credible and reliable. This can ultimately help her argument by causing readers to better memorize her information through her repetition. Goldstein also has organization in her writing which presents the reader with every aspect of her argument in a reasonable manner. She supplies the reader with information first on teacher evaluations. This gives readers a full understanding of the concept of teacher evaluations and how they work. After doing this Goldstein then presents her argument making sure she presents each concept in its on individual passage. By Goldstein presenting her opinion in a clear and flowing arrangement this can put how the reader sees and judges her argument in her favor. I plan to use this article by using the information about PAR that Jennifer Goldstein has supplied. She gave great examples and facts that back up her opinion which can help me in my final paper. From reading these chapters I gained a full understand of how using this system of PAR can benefit schools. Now when I use this information or argue this side of my argument I will be able to have the full knowledge of every aspect that goes along with the PAR evaluation system. PAR avoids some of the opacity of traditional evaluations in multiple ways. (Goldstein 78) PAR opens the door opens the door to teaching practice by putting coaches in participating teachers classrooms on an ongoing and regular basis, generating more data on which to base the evaluations. (Goldstein 78)

Huss 11 Perhaps the most important structural change that increased the transparency of the evaluation process was that PAR created formal teams of colleagues engaged in the work of teacher evaluation. (Goldstein 78)